Toussaint's Private French Notebook

Cheat Sheet

The post that receives the most hits on this and my other language blogs, is always the one that contains a picture of a verb conjugation timeline. You know the one….

I actually put this together using multiple sources in Excel, and took a screen shot. I recently discovered that I could post spreadsheets on the blog, so here is my collection…when you click it, the spreadsheet is downloaded.

I have not finished my Spanish version though, so if you do, please copy me on it. It is difficult to improve on this version though. If you are a teacher or instructor, and have an idea on how to rearrange, change, add/subtract or modify in some other way, please do so…and think about sending me a copy by making a comment. I’ll see your e-mail address on the comment and make a request. Likewise, if you make one in another language (like Portuguese), send me a copy.

Language teachers often encourage their classroom students to use the art of circumlocution, when they are are at a loss for the perfect word or sentence, in their new language. They do this by prompting their students to:

Use the simpler vocabulary that is already known.

Think of another way to get their message across.

Describe the concept, and those things related to the concept, like location and use.

Use of a synonym.

Use of a more general word in the word’s broader category (can’t think of apple? how about red fruit?)

Explain what the object is and/or what the object is not.

Point and use gestures, actions, and sounds.

If they have paper, have them draw it, and describe what they are drawing, if they can.

The process is similar to watching those game shows where one of the contestants is shown a word, and attempts to get their partner to say that word, without using the word or a variation of the word in the clues.

I updated my guide to French pronunciation, to reflect some miscellaneoous sounds that I saw on another person’s very simple Pinterest graphic. It should make some words easier, but some will always be intimidating, like these 120 (30 each):

Note: Answers to test follow….scroll down to see how you did (but don’t cheat)

This was my personal attempt. I focused on some standard memorization (present tense) but also worked on knowing my mnemonic phrases and the way each mnemonic phrase visually keys everything I need to recall the conjugations. BTW, I threw in a few extra tenses:

A lot can be learned by doing this exercise. You may have noticed that past tenses and perfect tenses, contain a past participle. Imperfect does not, and neither do future tenses. Why would they? It’s past participle. You may argue that future perfect shouldn’t, but there is an element of the past in this tense, so it makes sense to me.

Tense

Translation

Je

Tu

Il/Elle

Past Conditional

would have spoken

j’aurais parlé

tu aurais parlé

il aurait parlé

Pluperfect

had spoken

j’avais parlé

tu avais parlé

il avait parlé

Passé Composé

have spoken

j’ais parlé

tu as parlé

il a parlé

Imperfect

was speaking, spoke

je parlais

tu parlais

il parlait

Present

speak

je parle

tu parles

il parle

Future

will speak

je parlerai

tu parleras

il parlera

Conditional

would speak

je parlerais

tu parlerais

il parlerait

Future Perfect

will have spoken

j’aurai parlé

tu auras parlé

il aura parlé

Tense

Translation

Nous

Vous

Ils/Elles

Past Conditional

would have spoken

nous aurions parlé

vous auriez parlé

ils auraient parlé

Pluperfect

had spoken

nous avions parlé

vous aviez parlé

ils avaient parlé

Passé Composé

have spoken

nous avons parlé

vous avez parlé

ils ont parlé

Imperfect

was speaking, spoke

nous parlions

vous parliez

ils parlaient

Present

speak

nous parlons

vous parlez

ils parlent

Future

will speak

nous parlerons

vous parlerez

ils parleront

Conditional

would speak

nous parlerions

vous parleriez

ils parleraient

Future Perfect

will have spoken

nous aurons parlé

vous aurez parlé

ils auront parlé

I hope these mnemonics have helped or inspired you to create your own. If I was allowed to bring one piece of paper into a real French test, I would have these visual mnemonics on one side, and the overview…

on the other side. Another way viewing these visual mnemonics, next to an actual conjugation page, would look like this:

Let me start by giving you the map, which you may call a “cheat sheet”:

A verb in the purest form (without a noun or subject pronoun to perform the action) is called an infinitive. The infinitives in English are characterized by the prefix “to” + “verb form”, the French infinitives are identified by three common endings.

Example: manger (to eat), avoir (to have), entendre (to hear)

Sometimes you’ll hear people call the -er ending the “first conjunction”, the -ir ending the “second conjunction”, and the -re ending the “third conjunction”.

The indicative mood conveys something as factual or objective. “Je mange le pomme”, (I eat the apple). The indicative mood is the one used most often because it indicates a fact or something that is happening, has happened, or will happen. On the cheat sheet, the blue areas are indicative, so you can see that most useful tenses happen in the indicative mood.

The imperative mood is often a command. For example: “Fermez la porte“, (Close the door). It may also be used to give an order, express a desire, make a request, offer advice, or recommend something. The red areas are imperative.

The subjunctive mood is the mood of doubt, subjectivity, uncertainty, emotion, and will. For example: “Je ne pense pas qu’il puisse y arriver”, (I don’t think he can get there). Generally, the subjunctive mood always follows “que” (though “que” does not always indicate the subjunctive). The orange areas on the chart are subjunctive.

The conditional mood is sometimes mentioned as a fourth mood, because linguistics is so controversial. The French conditional mood is very similar to the English conditional mood. It describes events that are not guaranteed to occur; often they are dependent on certain conditions. While the French conditional mood has a full set of conjugations, the English equivalent is just the modal verb “would” + main verb.

The French conditional is mainly used in if … then situations, to express what would happen if a condition were met. For example: “Il mangerait s’il avait faim”, (He would eat if he were hungry). The green areas on the chart are conditional.

Now we’ll talk about verb tenses. Actions (verbs) can be expressed either in the present, past, future, or conditional tenses. They appear in either simple or compound forms. Verbs that do not require changes in their stems are considered regular. Verbs requiring spelling or stem changes are considered irregular.

The indicative mood has a simple and a compound version of the present tense. The simple present is the same as in English. For example: “Je suis fatigue”, (I am tired). A compound version of the present tense is known as the present perfect.

The present perfect tense is formed by using the present tense of the auxiliary verb avoir (to have) + the appropriate verb’s past participle (regular or irregular form). Example: “J’ai parlé”, (I have spoken).

There are four versions of the past tense in the indicative mood. They are the simple past, pluperfect, present perfect and an imperfect tense.

There are two versions of the future tense in the indicative mood. They are future and past future. The future tense corresponds to the English “will” or “shall”, and the verb is in a simple conjugated form, in a regular or irregular manner. Example: “Je parlerai”, (I will speak).

The past future is formed by using the future tense of the auxiliary verb avoir + past participle (regular or irregular form). Example: “J’aurai parlé”, (I will have spoken).

Indicative mood summary: We have covered eight verb tenses consisting of two present, four past tenses, and two future .

The subjunctive moodhas four verb tenses. As mentioned earlier, subjunctive mood is used to express everything except certainty and objectivity…like doubt, uncertainty, and subjectivity. There are many clauses that are used to make the mood subjunctive. You will find a long list of these clauses, here:

The present subjunctive mood simply uses “que” for that and the present conjugations. The clause is subordinate to the main clause.

The past subjunctive mood is used for the same reasons as the present subjunctive, and that is to express emotion, doubts, etc. The past subjunctive is used when the verb in the subordinate clause – the verb that follows que – happened before the verb in the main clause.

The imperfect subjunctive mood, is a literary verb form used in formal writing, such as literature, journalism, and history. Like all literary verb forms, you really only need to be able to recognize it, not use it. The imperfect subjunctive is used in a subordinate clause (so look for “que”) when the main clause is in the past. Its non-literary equivalent is the present subjunctive.

The pluperfect subjunctive mood, is formed by taking the past subjunctive form of avoir, preceding it with “que”, and following it with the past participle. Example: “que j’eusse parlé” (that I had spoken). The French pluperfect subjunctive is the least common literary tense.

The imperative moodhas two verb tenses, past and present. With this mood you express an intention to influence the behavior of someone else, by giving them an order, invitation, or request. The French past imperative is very rare, because its usage is restricted to a single situation: it gives a command for something that must be done before a certain time. Example: “Soyez partis à midi”, (Be gone by noon).

The present imperative is conjugation is limited to nous, vous, and tu. When you see the command, you will not see the subject pronoun, just the conjugated verb. Example: “Fermez la porte!”, (Close the door!)

The past imperative is a compound conjugation, which means it has two parts: the imperative of the auxiliary verb (either avoir or être), and the past participle of the main verb.

Subjunctive mood summary: We have covered four verb tenses, consisting of one present, and three past tenses.

French also has three conditional tenses. The conditional is used to express what would happen given certain events or actions.

The first use, conditional present, is when you’d like to express a wish or suggestion. Example: “Je voudrais aller en France pendant les vacances d’hiver’’, (I’d like to go to France during winter holiday.)

The second use, past conditional, is a compound conjugation, which means it has two parts. The first is the conditional of the auxiliary verb (either avoir or être), and then the past participle of the main verb. The past conditional is often used in “si clauses” with the unmet condition in the past perfect. What does that mean? Example: “Si je l’avais vu, je l’aurais acheté”, (If I had seen it, I would have bought it). Notice the two tenses of the “avoir” verb, meaning “to have”.

The third use is the second form of the past conditional, which is the literary equivalent of the conditional perfect and looks like the pluperfect subjunctive (they are conjugated identically). It is important to be able to recognize the tense, but you will probably never need to conjugate it, since it is mainly in literary “si” clauses.

This is the one on wikipedia…and I’m pretty sure my versions are more complete, but the version below does break down the moods, so it may be worth having around. Just wish it included -re and -ir verbs:

This seems to have come out pretty well but you never know if there are mistakes, because I’m the only one that worked on it, and I make mistakes. If you find any, please write to the blog (duolinguist@zoho.com) or make a comment. Thanks.

These are the essential tools and files you need to collect before you start learning French on your own, in my opinion. You may be learning the language using Pimsleur, Rosetta Stone, Babbel, RocketLanguage, Fluenz, and others, but these are the free tools available to you on the Internet, that I have found especially useful:

I would like you to consider at the very minimum augmenting your study with Duolingo. You should register here:

What is Anki? It’s a study card program like many others, which uses timed intervals to help you re-inforce what you have learned. It works to improve your memory.

“Anki is a program which makes remembering things easy. Because it’s a lot more efficient than traditional study methods, you can either greatly decrease your time spent studying, or greatly increase the amount you learn.” That’s what they say. It’s an interesting tool, that’s what I say.

The program is just under 23 MB in size. Download and install…you can then download an Anki “shared” Deck, and benefit from the work of others. French language decks are found here:

After you have downloaded and installed Anki, I want you to place an add-on program into Anki. We are going to add the power of audio files, using an add-on called, “Awesome TTS” (TTS = Text-to-Speech). After opening Anki, in the “Install Add-on” window, copy and paste 301952613 into the “Code” field and click “OK”. The download happens in seconds. Close Anki then re-open. The power to automatically add audio to your files, specifically French speakers reading your card text, is now in your Anki program.

I then suggest you register with Anki (it’s free). This will allow you to synchronize your decks across multiple platforms, like your smart phone, and various android devices.

If you wish to become more proficient at Anki, you may find You Tube videos helpful, or you can download this PDF and use it for reference. The download is found at the bottom right, as a picture of the PDF’s front cover:

This program will allow you to right-click at a website and start a download of all of the MP3’s found on a website. After installing the program, and restarting your Firefox browser, you are going to do just that, at these websites:

Go down to around mid-page, where you see “Télécharger”, which means download. Click it, download, and unzip into your target directory. Now you have scores of words in alphabetical order, in multiple folders. I personally got rid of all the folders, and simply put them all in one folder, so that I could see them alphabetically. When I hear a word I did not understand on Duolingo, I go here and can replay the pronunciation over and over, until I have the sound correct.

Since people just love it when they get something for nothing, Pimsleur has a free section where you can download some of their French MP3s, located here: (You will use Download Them All!)

I printed my version and laminated it so that it is always nearby. This will save you from being side-swiped by language teachers that throw a verb tense or mood at you, seemingly out of nowhere, or worse, they start to use the French word for the tense.

I also developed a pronunciation cheat sheet:

Let’s review what we have…almost every word and phrase you need, in MP3 form, two free textbooks that focus on group discussion learning, an on-line course, a memory re-enforcement tool that synchronizes across all platforms, several bookmarks with indexed lessons and discussions on French grammar, and a bunch of cheat sheets for popular verbs, French verb tenses and moods, my pronunciation guide, and other cheat sheets that may help us get through rough spots. We’re now ready to start Duolingo.

Other resources:

Videos from “Learn French with Jennifer” are found on YouTube, and she lists the names of those videos in this blog post.

In the early stages of learning, you may find the basics very helpful, even though you read the first few chapters of that 1917 Textbook. I suggest you look through these websites during your first few weeks:

That’s it for day one. You’ve gathered a ton of tools in a very short time. You may feel overwhelmed right now. The idea is to not spend a lot of time administering your lessons, tools and look-ups. Look at the tags and categories on my blog, to find areas which you are comfortable with, like songs, children’s songs, podcasts, etc.

You will want to start practicing the words you now know how to pronounce, and you may use Skype for this, after finding language partners on line. There are many, so Google for sites that offer language partners. I have used:

If you wish to avoid a lot of the errors that English speakers experience while learning French, you may wish to read my post on what I would have liked to have known during my first month studying French…found here:

It is very easy to copy a column of words from a spreadsheet, and drop it into Google Translate, translate into the language you wish, and then copy and paste to an adjacent column in your spreadsheet. If you stay organized with your vocabulary from the start, you’ll be amazed at what you can do with your lists.

I’m also going to recommend, Self-Taught French by Timm. Here you can find the PDF: